{"id":29882,"date":"2017-10-20T15:12:23","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T09:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=29882"},"modified":"2017-10-20T15:31:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-20T10:01:29","slug":"election-commission-authorised-pm-modi-announce-guj-poll-dates-chidambaram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/politics\/election-commission-authorised-pm-modi-announce-guj-poll-dates-chidambaram\/","title":{"rendered":"EC has authorised PM Modi to announce Guj poll dates: Chidambaram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<em>Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram takes a swipe at PM Modi, EC over delay in announcement of Gujarat assembly poll schedule<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Former Union finance minister and C<a href=\"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/topic\/p-chidambaram\">ongress veteran P Chidambaram<\/a>,\u00a0<span data-term=\"goog_2039982441\">on Friday<\/span>, took a swipe at <a href=\"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/topic\/narendra-modi\">Prime Minister Narendra Modi<\/a> and the Election Commission for the delay in the announcement of the Gujarat assembly poll schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to Twitter on Friday morning, the former finance minister said:[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_raw_html]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[\/vc_raw_html][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Opposition parties, especially the Congress, and at least three former chief election commissioners (CECs) had earlier raised questions over the Election Commission\u2019s recent decision to defer the announcement on the Gujarat poll schedule even as the poll panel set November 9 and December 18 as the dates for polling and counting of votes respectively for the Himachal assembly.<\/p>\n<p>The term of the Gujarat Assembly is scheduled to end on\u00a0<span data-term=\"goog_2039982445\">January 22, 2018<\/span>\u00a0while that of the Himachal Pradesh assembly ends on January 7, 2018. The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/topic\/election-commission\">Election Commission<\/a>\u2019s decision to not announce the poll schedules for the two states simultaneously breaks from the poll panel\u2019s convention of declaring elections together for assemblies whose terms end\u00a0<span data-term=\"goog_2039982447\">within six months<\/span>\u00a0of each other.<\/p>\n<p>The Congress has alleged that incumbent chief election commissioner AK Joti was pressurized by Prime Minister Modi and the ruling BJP government at the Centre to defer an announcement over the Gujarat elections to help the saffron party announce some sops for voters before the model code of conduct for polls kicks in. The Congress and the BJP are in a direct contest in both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. However, while the Congress is currently in power in Himachal, it has remained in the Opposition in Gujarat for nearly 22 years now.<\/p>\n<p>The Congress was hoping that the forthcoming polls in Gujarat will bring an electoral turnaround in its fortunes. The incumbent Vijay Rupani-led BJP government in the state faces anti-incumbency and dissent among the Dalits, minorities, Adivasi communities (all of whom have faced some form of alleged persecution in the state in recent years), anger in the traditional BJP votebank of the Patel\/Patidar community (which has been demanding reservations) and the trader lobby (upset over the GST implementation).<\/p>\n<p>While Rupani has himself been on a scheme-announcement spree in Gujarat, hoping to quell dissent and dissatisfaction among the electorate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too is scheduled to address a major rally in the state on\u00a0<span data-term=\"goog_2039982448\">October 22<\/span>\u00a0and it is expected that he will announce some sops for the country, keeping the demands of Gujarat\u2019s voters in mind. Had the EC announced the poll dates for Gujarat along with the schedule for Himachal earlier this month, the move would have prevented both Modi and Rupani from announcing the pro-people sops like loan waivers, free electricity, housing, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Former chief election commissioners TS Krishnamurthy, SY Quraishi and Naveen Chawla have all raised questions on the poll panel\u2019s decision to not announce simultaneous polls for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and asserted that the move not only breaches established conventions but also raises \u201cserious questions\u201d of possible \u201cadministrative failure\u201d of the election commission.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram takes a swipe at PM Modi, EC over delay in announcement of Gujarat assembly poll schedule Former Union finance minister and Congress veteran P Chidambaram,\u00a0on Friday, took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission for the delay in the announcement of the Gujarat assembly poll [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[1028,26301,1399,570],"yst_prominent_words":[26294,4316,26299,4092,4613,25855,26297,26292,26290,26298,15245,26293,26291,14628,6619,25856,4396,6620,6618,14337],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Chidambaram-new.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29882"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=29882"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=29882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- html is corrupted -->